Thursday, July 20, 2006

Looks like Steve had it right after all

because "measured" can also mean "deliberate".

Globe&Mail and Jerusalem Post:"It couldn't have happened without the capture of the Israeli soldiers, who gave their government the pretext to dismantle as much of Hezbollah's power as possible, just six years after the withdrawal from Lebanon.

"The capture of the soldiers allowed Israel to react. . . . No one expects the army's military operation to bring back the soldiers."

Civilian infrastructure has been targeted -- partly, he said, because those bridges, roads and fuel depots are used by Hezbollah, but also to "send a message to the Lebanese that they will pay a high price" for the militants' cross-border attacks.Israel says it has not used all of its military might because it fears wider action could topple the Lebanese government. Israel has an interest in keeping the fledgling elected government, which is largely anti-Syrian, in power.

The generals had also been itching for the green light to enter Gaza with tanks, bulldozers and infantry soldiers to attack Palestinian militants and their Qassam-rocket factories, and it wasn't until three weeks ago, when militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, that the military got approval.

In that case, the operation also gave the Israeli government the ability to further weaken the Hamas-led Palestinian government. It detained half the cabinet and a third of the parliament, essentially crippling the government."

The new rules of self-defense :

Deliberately crippling two democratically elected governments and targeting their civilian infrastructure.

At least this means we won't have to listen to bullshit protestations of innocence as regards targeting civilians any more . Right?

4 comments:

Q
said...

Some irony, as if it were needed, currently Turkey is being held up by the U.S. from sending its army into northern Iraq. The Kurdish PKK has been cross border harassing and killing Turks for a long time, 37,000 dead since 1984. Turkey wants the same right of self-defense that Israel has been given, Iran agrees with Turkey, but Rice and the State Dept. say no.

This is because Israel -- as God's Chosen Messianic Vehicle, dontchaknow -- never makes mistakes and must be supported at any cost, so all the fundies get to have their Messiah's Second Coming AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Why is it that it only occurs to Amy Goodman to give Noam Chomsky a call on the issues? Please go to the third paragraph below to see the event that is seen by those most affected by the Israeli policy of kidnapping,bulldozing, rocket attacks and assasinations of Palestinians and Lebanese people. Now why did we not get this crucial piece of information?

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/146258

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, of course, I have no inside information, other than what's available to you and listeners. What's happening in Gaza, to start with that -- well, basically the current stage of what's going on -- there's a lot more -- begins with the Hamas election, back the end of January. Israel and the United States at once announced that they were going to punish the people of Palestine for voting the wrong way in a free election. And the punishment has been severe.

At the same time, it's partly in Gaza, and sort of hidden in a way, but even more extreme in the West Bank, where Olmert announced his annexation program, what’s euphemistically called “convergence” and described here often as a “withdrawal,” but in fact it’s a formalization of the program of annexing the valuable lands, most of the resources, including water, of the West Bank and cantonizing the rest and imprisoning it, since he also announced that Israel would take over the Jordan Valley. Well, that proceeds without extreme violence or nothing much said about it.

Gaza, itself, the latest phase, began on June 24. It was when Israel abducted two Gaza civilians, a doctor and his brother. We don't know their names. You don’t know the names of victims. They were taken to Israel, presumably, and nobody knows their fate. The next day, something happened, which we do know about, a lot. Militants in Gaza, probably Islamic Jihad, abducted an Israeli soldier across the border. That’s Corporal Gilad Shalit. And that's well known; first abduction is not. Then followed the escalation of Israeli attacks on Gaza, which I don’t have to repeat. It’s reported on adequately.

The next stage was Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers, they say on the border. Their official reason for this is that they are aiming for prisoner release. There are a few, nobody knows how many. Officially, there are three Lebanese prisoners in Israel. There's allegedly a couple hundred people missing. Who knows where they are?

But the real reason, I think it's generally agreed by analysts, is that -- I’ll read from the Financial Times, which happens to be right in front of me. “The timing and scale of its attack suggest it was partly intended to reduce the pressure on Palestinians by forcing Israel to fight on two fronts simultaneously.” David Hearst, who knows this area well, describes it, I think this morning, as a display of solidarity with suffering people, the clinching impulse.****************************************Peace, babies.